Father
by whatsapenname1
Summary: Why is Chiyo so smart? Just what the hell is that cat-father thing? Seven years after high school the fate of the world may depend on the girls.
1. Chapter 1

"Takino here."

"Hi Tomo, it's Chiyo."

"Oh hey Chiyo-Chan!" Tomo leaned back in her chair and kicked her feet up on the desk. "How's it going? What are you working on now? A space ship?"

"Ha ha. No, it's time-space mechanics, unified field theory, that kind of thing."

"Yuck, math. It's all English to me."

"You mean you still don't speak English?"

"No, I do. Just, you know."

Chiyo didn't so she went on. "Have you seen any of the girls lately?"

"Well, I saw Kagura on a Wheaties box this morning, I saw Yomi on the news yesterday, and I saw Osaka on Letterman last week." She laughed. "Man, she was so nervous!"

"I mean have you _talked_ to any of them?"

"Oh no. Not since Yomi's birthday. She's getting so old!"

"She's two months older than you."

"Ha, I know! The old hag!"

"Well, I really need to talk to all of you in person. I've discovered something that could be really dangerous."

"Something you need _all_ of us for? Dangerous math?"

"Well, it's not _all_ math. I'd rather not go into detail on the phone but it's really important."

Tomo sat up and became more serious. "This is a secure line. You can tell me. Hey, it was _you_ who invented this encryption algorithm."

"I know. And I'm pretty sure it's been compromised."

"Okay, well I'm sure everybody will come if it's that important."

"Good. We'll meet at the summer house Saturday."

"Saturday? Well, it's not much notice but okay. You call Osaka and Sakaki. I'll call Yomi and Kagura."

"Okay, good. Thanks a lot, Tomo."

*

In a smoky back room, at a meeting of a cabal of shady power brokers a picture of an attractive Japanese woman in glasses was on a large TV screen.

"Koyomi Mizukara. Youngest ever founder of a fortune five hundred company. Current net worth estimated at eight billion dollars."

The picture changed to an even taller, better endowed woman.

"Ayako Sakaki. Small town veterinarian. Until her pet cat contracted stomach cancer. She developed a cure that's been successfully adapted to treat all forms of cancer in humans."

A shorter woman with hair that was spiky in back and a confident smirk on her face.

"Tomo L. Takino. Youngest and first female head of Interpol. She's been instrumental in taking down crime syndicates and terrorist organizations around the globe. She's been uncomfortably close to our own organization on more than one occasion."

Now the screen showed a short woman with a far away look in her eye.

"Ayumu Kasuga. Wrote the incredibly successful Angelica Button series of children's books and movie adaptations. Often called the Japanese J.K. Rowling."

Finally a well built and deeply tanned woman.

"Kagura Kasuhara. In the 2012 Olympics broke Michael Phelps' record with eleven gold metals which translated into millions in endorsement deals.

"Five women who went to high school together and are still close friends all rose to the top of their fields with unheard of speed. The odds against it are astronomical. We think the connection is the sixth member of the group."

The screen showed a pretty young woman with long auburn hair.

"Chiyo Mihama. I.Q. unmeasurable. Received a doctorate in physics at 17 and another in quantum mechanics at 19. She holds several patents, most notably the zero point generator that freed the world from dependence on fossil fuels." Oil men around the table grumbled. "We believe Mihama is something more than human."

*

"Thank you for coming, everybody. I know how busy you all are. A few days ago I picked up a transmission from deep space on a faster than light tachyon wave."

"You mean like from aliens?"

"Yes, it's definitely artificial in origin."

Chiyo pressed a button on the remote and a strange creature that looked something like a bizarre floating cartoon cat appeared on the TV screen.

"I've seen that before!" Sakaki gasped.

"Me too!" said Osaka.

"Where??"

"In a dream."

"Yeah, or a daydream."

"He told me I'd find Maya." She scratched the cat's ears and he purred happily.

"He told me I'd find the lost city of Atlantis." Osaka paused. "Or a unicorn or somethin'. I forget."

"Well, um, anyway, you two have always been the most psychic of us. This being may have been trying to make contact for a long time. I translated the message and here's what it says."

The creature on the screen said, in a weird cartoon voice: "Hi Chiyo. I'm your father. It's time we met. Meet me at the attached coordinates in fifteen days. Oh, and bring your friends. If you don't come, the earth will be destroyed. See you soon."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Now I remember! He told me I'd find a Snickers bar. And I did the next day. Layin' right there on the sidewalk."

"Well, though it's a simple message it obviously came from an advanced intelligence. It called itself my father so I had a full DNA screening and it showed…that I'm not fully human. I have several chromosomes the average human doesn't. I think they must have modified my DNA before I was born and I'm pretty sure I must have affected all of you."

"So we're all aliens?" Kagura gasped.

"No, not aliens. Just…more advanced humans."

"So what are we gonna do?"

"Well…I don't think I have any choice. I'm going to go to the meeting. I can't ask any of you to come but-"

Sakaki squeezed her shoulder. "I'll go."

"Yeah. We're with ya, Chiyo-Chan!"

The others all agreed.

"Thanks guys." Chiyo blinked tears out of her eyes.

"So, where are these 'coordinates'?" Yomi asked.

"They're near Proxima Centauri, one of the nearest stars."

"How the hell are we supposed to get _there??_"

"In this." A new picture appeared on the screen.

"A space ship! I knew it!" Tomo said.

"The engines are highly experimental, of course, but everything checks out. We should be able to travel at hundreds of times the speed of light."

"Well let's go see it!! I call shotgun!" Tomo called.

Chiyo took them to the nearby caverns where the experimental ship was stored and started familiarizing everyone with the controls.

*

Everyone spent the night and they were just sitting down to a late breakfast when they were startled by a loud knock on the door.

Chiyo opened the door and let in Nyamo and Yukari. Yukari was already in her bathing suit.

"Hi everybody! We heard you were all back in Japan so we wanted to come see you." Nyamo said.

"It's so good to see you. Oh, congratulations on your promotion, Minamo!"

"Yeah, yeah. Ms. Big Shot assistant principle. Well, she's not the boss of me!"

"I _am_ your boss, Yukari."

"Hey, what's the big idea coming to the summer home and not inviting us??"

"Well, we're not really on vacation-"

"Geez, it's thanks to our wisdom and guidance that you guys are all so successful and now you won't even take our calls."

"What are you talking about? I gave you a loan just the other day." Yomi said. "Against my better judgment." She muttered under her breath.

"That was business. I meant our _social_ calls."

"I set you up with my cousin last month and now _he_ won't return _my_ calls." Osaka said.

"And I keep telling you I don't have the authority to rescind your speeding tickets." Tomo added.

Yukari was silent for a moment then burst out "I wanna swim, damn it!!"

"Fine, fine. Swim." Chiyo said.

"Yeah, we could all use a break. Let's all go down to the beach." Yomi said.

*

By early evening everyone was still hanging out on the beach.

Tomo stood and stretch. "Ahhh! It's been too long since we did this!"

"Yeah, but should we really be just laying on the beach with the world in danger?" Kagura worried.

"Relax. Chiyo said it would take most of the day to get the engines up to full power. Trust me, in a stressful situation like this grabbing some R&R whenever you can is important." She picked up the Frisbee. "Hey Osaka! Catch!"

"Dang it, Tomo! Ya gotta quit callin' me that! I ain't even lived in Osaka for ten years!" For no apparent reason the trajectory of the Frisbee changed and it whacked her in the head. "Ow!! And watch it with that thing!" She picked it up and looked at Tomo through a hole in the plastic. "What in the heck?"

Tomo's eyes widened. "Get down!!"

"Down? Like this?" She crouched down and sent the Frisbee floating back to Tomo, close to the ground.

"No! Find cover!" Tomo frantically scanned the cliffs around the beach for the shooter. There! She caught the Frisbee and threw it as hard as she could. It struck the gun barrel, causing the next shot to go wide.

Osaka, still puzzled, followed the Frisbee with her eyes and finally saw the sniper. "Hey, ya jerk! That's dangerous!" She yelled. She picked up the stick they'd used to smash the watermelon and threw it. It struck him right between the eyes and he toppled out of his hiding place.

"Whoa, nice." Tomo said, impressed.

Suddenly several men in camouflage stormed onto the beach. One came at Kagura. She kicked him in the stomach and then flipped him over her shoulder, slamming him into the ground hard.

Another made a grab for Yomi. She got a hold of his arm and twisted it behind his back. He spouted a loud stream of threats and profanity as he tried to get out of the joint lock.

"Yeah right. I'm not scared of Trump, I'm sure as hell not scared of _you!_" She bashed his head into the radio and the music died.

Nyamo and Yukari linked arms and swung around each other. Nyamo let go and used her momentum to clothesline one guy across the throat. Yukari sprang up and got her legs around another's neck, flipping him and driving his head into the ground.

The girls looked on, astonished.

"What? We worked our way through college as professional wrestlers." Yukari said. [blatantly ripped off from another cool story]

The last guy came for Chiyo. Sakaki rushed to her aid but Mr. Tadakichi was faster. He jumped on the guy, barking and snarling. There was a bright muzzle flash and he fell to the ground.

Sakaki howled in rage and slammed her fist into the attacker's chin so hard he was knocked out cold.

Chiyo was right behind her. She jumped on the unconscious man and started pounding on him "You killed Mr. Tadakichi, you son of a bitch!!" She screamed.

"Chiyo, Chiyo stop!" Sakaki pulled her off. "He's gonna be okay. But we have to get out of here."

Chiyo stopped struggling. "You-you're sure?"

"Positive. Here, carry Maya for me."

Sakaki wrapped Mr. Tadakichi in a beach towel and carried him with help from Kagura and Nyamo and they all made their way up the beach to the caves.

"Somebody want to tell us what the hell's going on here??" Yukari asked.

"The Men In Black are after Chiyo-Chan cause her daddy's an alien." Osaka said.

Yukari groaned. "Yomi?"

"That sounds about right." Yomi said seriously.

Yukari slapped her forehead.

Then as they came around the corner she saw the huge space ship and her jaw dropped.

Suddenly bullets pinged off the walls, showering them with chips of rock.

Tomo returned fire with the gun she'd confiscated. "Everybody get inside! Chiyo, this thing better be ready to go!"

Moments later the ship blasted out of it's hiding place and ascended rapidly through the atmosphere.

Soon they all floated in the ship's lounge area explaining the situation to the teachers as they hurled through space faster than light.

Chiyo was hugging Mr. Tadakichi, who had his shoulder shaved and bandaged. She'd put her hair up in pigtails to keep it out of the way. Sakaki also had her hair in a ponytail. Osaka stared out the window at the stars whizzing by and Tomo was bouncing off the walls chasing Maya around.

Yukari groaned and sealed her barf bag.

"I'm really sorry." Chiyo said. "The artificial gravity should be running soon."

"Eh, no hurry." Tomo said as she did a flip.

"Chiyo, do you have any other clothes we can put on?" Yomi asked.

"Oh no, we don't. I thought we'd have time to get our bags before we took off."

"Great, so we're off to save the world in our bathing suits. It's like some dumb manga."

"Oh well, at least this way all my fans can see that I almost caught up to Sakaki." Tomo adjusted her top as she floated upside down from everybody else.

Sakaki blushed and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Yeah, those pills Chiyo invented must really work." Yomi snickered.

"Hey! There were no pills! This is all me!" Tomo took a swing at Yomi, causing her to go into a slow spin.

"At least tell me there's food." Kagura said.

"Tell me there's not." Yukari moaned.

"Oh yes. We have plenty of supplies."

"Well then we're off! Six high school friends on a perilous mission to save the world. Will we find danger, adventure , romance?" The gravity came on. Everybody dropped into their seats and Tomo fell on her head. "Concussions?" She whimpered.


	2. Chapter 2

A couple of days later everybody was getting used to life on a ship Osaka had christened Red Zebra for some reason(It was painted white). With eight people and two pets it was a little cramped but otherwise very comfortable.

Most of the girls were playing cards, Chiyo was checking some of the readings on her control board and Osaka was staring out the window.

"It's like we're in the middle of space." She said in a spacey voice.

"We _are_ in the middle of space." Tomo said.

"Really? This is the middle?"

"Um…I don't know. Chiyo, where _is_ the middle of space??"

Chiyo answered without looking up from the controls. "Space doesn't actually have a center. All points in space are moving away from each other at an equal rate. Think of it like a balloon inflating. If you draw dots on the balloon as it expands all the dots get farther away from each other. The big bang-"

Tomo pointed out the window. "That's the middle, riiiiight _there_."

"Oh, so that's it. I think I might set my next book in space."

Something started beeping on Chiyo's panel.

"What's that?"

"Proximity alarm!" Chiyo said. "Something's closing on us fast!"

"Is it your father?"

"I don't know. Everybody um…get ready!"

Everybody looked at each other stupidly. The crew of the Starship Enterprise they weren't.

"What should we do?" Nyamo asked.

"Kagura, would you take the controls? I'll monitor the ship's systems. Sakaki, you be ready to treat any injuries and everybody else, um, try to look friendly."

A big goofy smile spread over Osaka 's face.

Kagura hopped into the pilot's seat. She was a little scared but also really excited. Being a video game addict made her the most qualified pilot of the bunch and she was looking forward to a chance to fly the ship by the seat of her pants.

A long, pointed ship that was a sickly green color came up alongside them and matched speed.

"I'm going to try hailing them." Chiyo whispered for no good reason. Everyone watched the ship silently as Chiyo tried to signal it.

Suddenly a beam of light lanced out from the alien ship and struck Red Zebra.

"They're firing on us!"

Osaka's big grin dissolved into a frown. "Aw, it didn't work!"

The ship rocked as they took another hit. "Get us out of here, Kagura!!"

"Right!" Kagura kicked in the emergency speed and rolled the ship, straining the inertial compensators and knocking most of them out of their seats.

Tomo got up and staggered to a control panel and started pounding on buttons at random. "Chiyo! Where the hell are the _phasers_ on this thing??"

"Please stop pressing buttons, Tomo!" Chiyo cried as she turned on the systems Tomo was turning off. "This ship doesn't have any weapons!"

"How the hell do you build a space ship without weapons? Haven't you ever seen the movies??"

"It's my first one, okay?!" Another blast hit them. Alarms started blaring as everybody's ears popped. "Oh no! We're venting atmosphere! We've got to lose them! Kagura, I'm dropping out of FTL!"

The ship shuttered and the view screen was filled with the blinding light of a bright red star.

"Oh shiiittt!!" Kagura pulled back on the controls and the ship screamed and strained around them threatening to come apart as it pulled out of the star's gravity well. Finally they were flying away from the star and she collapsed back in her seat. "Well, that wasn't so bad." No one responded. She turned to see them all clinging to each other pale as ghosts. "Hey, at least we lost them."

The beeping started again. "Ohhh, no we didn't! Here they come again!!" Chiyo cried.

"Damn it!" Kagura turned back to the controls and banked sharply.

"Kagura, you're heading straight toward an asteroid belt!"

"I see 'em."

"This is a really bad idea."

"Yeah, probably."

Chiyo clapped her hands over her eyes as they whizzed by a rock bigger than the ship.

Kagura gritted her teeth and bent over the controls as the two ships weaved and dodged crazily between the closely packed asteroids. The alien ship clipped a big, jagged rock and spun out of control, smashing full force into another and exploding with a spectacular flash. "Yeah!!" She screamed and pumped her fist.

"Kagura!!!" Several voices screamed in unison.

"Right, right!" She put her hands back on the controls just in time to narrowly avoid another collision.

"I'll never complain about Yukari's driving again." Chiyo moaned. As they left the asteroid field she started checking the numerous flashing red lights on her panel. "We've lost all of our water and most of our atmosphere reserve. And we really need to set down for repairs." She scanned the solar system. "Ah, head for that planet! It looks perfect, water, nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. There's probably even life."

As they approached the planet it became obvious that it was covered with plant life. Chiyo continued her scans. "It's pretty hot, mostly jungle. No signs of cities or industry…"

"It's so green!" Osaka said. "We should call it-"

"You're not naming it!" Yomi yelled. "Let's call it-"

"Hey, why do you get to name it?" Tomo complained.

"_I_ just saved the ship, I want to name it!" Kagura said.

""ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS!!""

Osaka's rock broke three pairs of scissors. "Wasabi Planet!"

"Well, at least you got the color right."

Kagura chuckled. "Okay, setting course for Wasabi Planet."


	3. Chapter 3

Osaka stood in the hatch looking out at the alien world. The forest was mostly made up of bright green fern trees under a yellowish sky. She giggled as a small pink creature like an aerial jellyfish floated by and landed briefly on her nose.

"Hey, move it!" Tomo elbowed her out of the way and jumped out onto the surface. Her space suit boots squelched in the soft ground and what at first looked like a field of brightly colored flowers of took off with loud, indignant squawks. "Hey! What the…" She batted at the flapping insect creatures all around her and fell on her butt in the mud.

Chiyo finished her diagnostics. "Well, we need to make some repairs then I can fill the oxygen tanks and then we can find a freshwater lake to take on water. I could really use some help. Anybody any good with tools?"

"Nyamo works on her own car." Yukari volunteered.

"Huh? No I don't. I can change the oil…"

"That should be good enough."

"I'll help too." Yomi said.

"Great. The rest of us are gonna go exploring." Tomo said.

"That's really not a good idea."

"We'll find the water for you. Plus I might meet some cute green Tarzan guy."

"We can find water once we're in the air again."

"I'd like to take a look at the wildlife." Sakaki said.

"And I want to see if there's any booze on this planet." Yukari turned and walked off into the jungle, ending the discussion. The others followed her.

"Well, at least take this communicator." Chiyo tossed it to Sakaki.

Yomi rolled her eyes and shook her head. "We'll never seen any of them again."

The five unqualified bikini clad explorers traipsed through the jungle. Luckily there didn't seem to be any insects that were interested in biting a human.

Sakaki bent down to examine a round red ball of fur at the base of a tree. She reached out to touch it and it opened wide and closed on her hand.

Her face instinctively contorted in pain but then she slowly opened her eyes and stared at the furball at the end of her arm.

"Are you okay?" Yukari asked.

"It doesn't hurt." She gently pried it off and looked at her hand. Her nails were cleaner and her hand felt nicely moisturized. Old cat bite scars were much less noticeable.

She pulled some leaves off the tree and offered them to the creature. It munched on them, making a contented purring sound and looked up at her with three big, soulful eyes. "Awww."

Osaka turned from the flowers she was looking at. "Hey, you found a soccer ball! Kick it here!"

"No!" Sakaki held the animal protectively to her chest.

A little farther along they came to what looked like a village of thatched huts in the trees. Suddenly about twenty creatures that looked something like greenish monkeys with six tentacles instead of arms and legs scampered out of the huts and surrounded them.

The closest monkeypus poked Osaka experimentally with a stick. She bowed and gave a little wave. The creature made a weird burbling sound.

Kagura nudged Yukari. "You're the linguist. Talk to it."

"Okay, okay." She addressed the creature. "_Hola! Como estas?_" It looked at her, puzzled. "_Wo ai ni? TlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a'?"_

It made another sound, waving it's tentacles around as it talked.

Yukari imitated it, waving her arms comically. Tomo and Kagura snickered. "Hey, shut up! What the hell do you know about communication?"

The monkeypus went back into it's hut and came out carrying a large gourd and offered it to Yukari. Liquid sloshed inside.

She took it and pulled the cork out of the top. She sniffed it and then smiled and took a long drink. "Whoa! That's good stuff!"

"You actually asked it for alcohol??"

"Of course. They respect me and think I'm beautiful. I'm pretty sure they think I'm some kind of Goddess or something. Of course I'm way too humble to argue."

"You don't know what you said." Tomo grumbled.

*

"H'llo?? Who's this??" Yukari slurred.

"It's Minamo! Where the hell are you? Is that music I hear??"

"Oh hey, Nyamo! You're missin' hell of a party!!"

There was a thump and some muffled arguing.

"Hello?" Sakaki said.

"Sakaki, where are you guys??"

"We met some locals. They seem pretty friendly."

"Oh. Well, the ship's repaired. Come on back."

"Okay, we'll be there soon."

*

Yomi, Chiyo, and Nyamo relaxed by the side of the ship waiting for the others.

"Where are those idiots?"

"They were drinking. Maybe we should go looking for them."

Just then they came running out of the jungle being pelted with nuts and small rocks. Sakaki clutched a ball of red fur. Yukari clutched a large gourd.

"Get inside quick!" Tomo yelled.

"What happened now?" Yomi yelled as they all piled into the ship and closed the hatch.

"They were really friendly but Yukari pissed them off somehow."

"All I did was thank them for their hospitality!" She paused. "Though now that I think about it it might have sounded a lot like 'piss on your ancestors' graves.'"

Nyamo rolled her eyes. "Let's just get going. There's a freshwater lake a few kilometers from here."

Oh yeah, we kind of forgot about that." Tomo laughed.

"Well, we got what matters!" Yukari held up the gourd triumphantly.

"Sakaki, what is that thing??" Chiyo asked.

"Um, it's some kind of a mixed breed, I think."

_The next chapter should be the last where they finally meet Chiyo's alien father._


	4. Chapter 4

_It's been forever since I worked on this story. Not sure if this last chapter's any good but I figured I'd just get it up. Maybe I'll rewrite it all some time._

Maya pounced, batting his "little sister"(Sakaki couldn't actually figure out the sex of her new pet) across the floor. At first Sakaki was afraid he would hurt her doing that but Tamako seemed to love the game. She caught her and rolled her gently back.

Yomi came in wearing a towel. "Jeez Tomo! Do you have to leave the shower so filthy? How do you even get so dirty living on a space ship?"

"Hey, may I remind you that I had to repel an alien invasion?"

"That was three days ago. And they were just throwing nuts at you."

"_Big_ nuts. And they smelled like dog food." She popped a kernel in her mouth and chewed. "Taste pretty good though."

Yomi covered her mouth, trembling with laughter. "That's Mr. Tadakichi's food, you idiot!"

"What? Bleh!" She spit out the chewed dog food and frantically wiped pieces off her tongue. Yomi continued laughing. "Oh yeah? Well…" She snatched Yomi's towel and ran.

They ran back and forth til Yomi tackled Tomo and wrestled the towel away.

"Uh, guys? We're here." Chiyo said softly but somehow managed to get the rowdy girls' attention. They all crowded around the window except for Yukari, who was back in a bunk snoring loudly."

The ship approached a small rocky, barren looking planet.

"This is where we're supposed to be but I doubt anything lives on that planet. Wait, there's something…"

A huge pair of ears rose slowly over the horizon, followed by a round, whiskered face.

"What is it?"

"It's-"

"Cute!" Sakaki smiled.

"-one hell of a big-"

"Copyright infringement?" Tomo interjected.

"-_space ship!_" Chiyo finished, exasperated.

The kilometers long ship shaped like a huge Hello Kitty floated closer, dwarfing Chiyo's little ship.

"Battle stations, everyone!" Tomo yelled.

"In other words sit down and shut up." Yomi said. "There are no weapons, remember."

A hatch opened where the Kitty's mouth should be and Red Zebra flew toward the opening.

"Kagura, I don't think we should just fly in there uninvited."

"I'm not doing it. The controls aren't responding."

They all watched helplessly as they were drawn inside the bigger ship. Their ship settled on it's landing gear in a large hangar.

"Well, um, I guess we should get out and take a look." Chiyo said.

"We should all stick together." Nyamo said. "I guess I'll go get Yukari up." She went to the back of the ship. "Yukari wake up! Come on, we're here!""Huh? Time for school already? Screw that, tell them I'm sick!"

"No, we're in space, remember?"

"Jeez, Nyamo, you're not in charge till we get to school! Gimmee five more minutes!"

"Hey, I know!" Osaka grabbed a pot and spoon from the kitchen and ran to the sleeping area.

"Oh, Ayumu, that pot's got-" Chiyo said too late as Osaka raised the pot to bang on it and the left over soup splashed all over Yukari.

"Aw, I never get that right!"

Yukari sat up in bed glaring at her.

"Hey, it worked! I woke you up!"

Yukari jumped up and chased Osaka into a corner, whacking her with the first thing she laid her hands on which was, naturally, her pillow.

"Yay! Pillow fight!" Osaka grabbed a pillow too and fought back.

They waited impatiently while Osaka and Yukari showered off soup and pillow stuffing. The ship was silent around them and the aliens made no attempt to contact them. Finally everybody was ready to go.

Chiyo lift her bag of tools and equipment over her shoulder. "We should probably leave the animals here."

Sakaki nodded and petted Maya and Tamako. "Be good."

As they left the ship Mr. Tadakichi clung to Chiyo's side. "No, Mr. Tadakichi. Stay."

The usually very obedient dog ignored her, squeezing past and bolting through the hatch and down the ramp then turned to look at her and whine.

She sighed. "Okay, fine. You can come."

They started down the corridor deeper into the huge ship. After a long walk they entered a large octagonal room that was empty and featureless except for the flowing abstract mural that wrapped around the walls.

"Hey Sakaki, this is a DNA sequence, isn't it?"

"Yes." Sakaki studied the lines of colored bars on the walls. "I think it's the human genome."

"Oh, look. Here's the section where our DNA is altered. But it seems a little off…"

Sakaki started over to her and ran headlong into an invisible wall. "What the-?" She felt around, exploring the invisible barrier between her and Chiyo.

There were grunts and angry muttering as everybody tried to get to each other. The room was divided into eight sections by force fields and the door they'd entered through had closed silently without anybody noticing.

Then the ceiling started to drop.

"What the hell is this? Some kind of fun house?" Kagura yelled.

Sakaki stooped down as the ceiling bumped her head.

"It's like they're tryin' to juice us!" Osaka said.

"This is no time for stupid jokes!" Yukari said as she beat on the force field.

"I wasn't jokin'."

Chiyo stared at the wall.

"Uh, Chiyo, we could really use your big fat genius brain about now!" Tomo said.

"Oh! This is it!" Chiyo said. She touched one of the colored bars and slid it over. She rearranged several of the genes on the wall. "That should do it."

"It didn't!" Yukari said as she bent under the descending ceiling.

Sakaki was trying to rearrange the symbols on her wall but they wouldn't move. "We must have to rearrange them in sequence. Yukari, move the red one over, now the white. Good."

They went around the room following Sakaki and Chiyo's instructions unscrambling the gene sequence, most of them on their knees by this point.

"Okay, now you, Ayumu." Tomo said. "Red, blue, green, blue." Osaka sat watching the ceiling drop. "Ayumu? Ayumu! _OSAKA!_"

Her face snapped toward Tomo. "Dang it, Tomo, I told ya to quit-"

"_Push the buttons!_"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Thought there were eight of them they weren't evenly distributed around the room. The only one in the last section was…

"Mr. Tadakichi, over there!" Chiyo coaxed him toward the wall. "Good boy, now up!"

Tadakichi stood on his hind legs and his paw thumped against the last panel. The ceiling started to rise immediately.

"Good boy!" Chiyo rushed over and hugged him, the barrier was now gone.

"Wow, Mr. Tadakichi's better trained than you!" Tomo said, nudging Osaka.

"Yeah, well, they wouldn't'a crushed you. Who'd want a glass of Tomo juice anyway?"

"They seem to be testing us." Chiyo said.

A door opened on the other side of the room and she started toward it.

"You're not really going in there?" Yukari said. "We should just go back to the ship and get the hell out of here,"

"There's no place else to go." Nyamo said. "The other door's gone."

Yukari sighed. "Well, Chiyo, I hope you're as smart as everybody thinks." She followed her through the door.

They were in a sort elevator or subway car. It moved rapidly through the ship. Everybody crowded around the windows as they zipped by alien habitats and machinery that even Chiyo couldn't guess the purpose of.

The car stopped and the exited into a small chamber.

Tomo walked toward a triangular projection sticking out of the wall. "It's another one of those puzzles. I'll get this one." She reached out and Yomi grabbed her hand.

"Let Chiyo or Sakaki do it! You're not a scientist!"

She struggled to free her hand. "Neither are you!"

"That's why I said to let _them_ do it!"

"Hey, I'm an international investigator, ya know!""Yeah, and _that_ keeps me up nights!"

"Uh, guys?" Chiyo said as they wrestled.

"It's called street smarts, you book worm!"

"Yeah, right! You didn't even know reindeer were real until you were sixteen!"

"Guys?"

Tomo started to turn red. "Of course I did! I was just messing with you!""Like hell you were!"

"It's a doorknob." Chiyo turned it and pushed the door open.

Yomi and Tomo turned to look at her. "I knew that!" They shouted in unison.

They were in another long hallway.

"We could be walking around in this place for days." Kagura groaned. "Hey, what's that?"

They all listened and heard a low thumping noise. As they listened it came closer and closer. Everybody waited tensely.

A huge creature came around the corner. It was basically humanoid, a hunched over mottled gray creature with huge hands and feet tipped with long claws and a mouth full of ridiculously huge razor sharp teeth. It looked like some creature out of a nightmare. It stopped when it saw them, growling low in it's throat.

Chiyo bravely stepped toward it and bowed. Her voice barely trembled. "H-hello. I'm Chiyo Mihama. Are you the person we're here to meet?"

It roared and Chiyo barely jumped back as it slashed at her with it's claws.

Mr. Tadakichi lunged toward it snarling but Sakaki held onto his collar. He was no match for this beast.

Tomo raised her gun and fired the four remaining rounds directly into it. The bullets had no effect but it turned and advanced on Tomo.

Chiyo fumbled in her bag and finally pulled out a metal tube. "Tomo! Here!"

She tossed it over the monster's shoulder and Tomo cause it. "What is-?" She pushed a button and a blue energy blade shot out of the handle. "No way!" She grinned "You finally found a cool use for science, Chiyo!"

She moved toward the creature, swinging the lightsaber in a cocky way.

It grabbed for her, she swung, expecting to cut it's hand off at the wrist. And was thrown back against the wall. The lightsaber made a long gouge in the wall as she hit.

"Chiyo, your lightsaber's a piece of crap!"

"I don't know what's wrong! It should be able to cut through any solid matter!"

Tomo rolled away and got to her feet just as the creature lunged forward to stomp her flat. It advanced and she feigned and ducked under it's huge paw, slashing at it's ribs this time with no better results.

She jumped and launched off the wall, landing on it's back and stabbing futilely at it's small, ugly head. It got a hold of her and threw her down. The lightsaber went flying, carving a chunk out of the floor.

She thrust out her hand toward the creature in a dramatic and useless pushing gesture.

"You're not a _real_ Jedi, moron!" Yomi screamed.

Tomo staggered to her feet and recovered her lightsaber. She swung and the creature grabbed the glowing blade and wretched it out of her hand. It smashed the handle against the wall and the lightsaber shorted out with a small explosion.

With a determined look on her face Tomo stood up straighter, spread her arms and walked slowly toward the monster.

"Tomo no!"

"Are you crazy?"

Get out of there!"

"Run!"

Tomo didn't flinch as the powerful hand swung toward her. The second the huge claws touched her the creature disappeared with a flash. Tomo slumped forward.

After a stunned second everybody ran to her.

"Tomo, are you hurt?"

"I'm okay." She gasped, breathing hard.

"What happened?"

"When you said it would cut any matter I realized it must be some kind of projection or hologram. And they wouldn't have brought us all the way out here just to kill us so I knew it must have been a test of courage."

"Wow, Tomo! You were amazing!" Kagura said.

"You really were." Yomi said, hugging her.

Tomo looked equally pleased and embarrassed by Yomi's praise.

"Jeez, Yomi. You're getting soft in your old age." She poked Yomi in the stomach. "Soft and flabby."

Yomi socked her in the stomach.

"That's better." She grunted.

Finally they came to a room with a tangle of swirling colors floating in the center of it. They approached and saw that they were long lines of numbers and strange symbols.

Chiyo gasped. "They're so far ahead of us! I've barely begun to work on anything this complex! Oh this could take years!"

"_Years?"_ Yukari whined.

"It's a kitty." Osaka said.

"No, it's an equation. The different colors probably represent-"

Osaka tilted her head and squinted. "No, bunny." She reached into the jumble of numbers and the equation shifted.

"Oh Ayumu, don't do that!"

Osaka moved her hand around, oblivious. "This and this and like that and…there!"

The lines of numbers wound around each other and formed into the face of a cute cartoon bunny.

Chiyo stared at the bunny in awe. "Amazing! You did all that in your head?"

"Huh? No, I just did it with my hand. So you could see the bunny better."

"This is it. A unified field equation. It all makes perfect sense!"

A door slid open at the end of the room and Chiyo tore herself away from the equation and walked slowly toward it. The others quickly followed.

They entered and were confronted with the alien cat creature in person.

"Chiyo! You came!" It floated over to her. "Look how big you've gotten!""H-hello. I'm pleased to meet you. Um, can I ask why you called us here?"

It put a tentacle around her shoulders. "I had to make sure you were ready. I always knew you would make me proud."

"Ready for what?"

"You, with the help of your friends, will help prepare your world to become a part of the galactic civilization. I have much to show you. You've only just begun to tap into your true powers."

He leaned down and whispered in her ear. She nodded, remembering how the charms and talismans she made as a kid always seemed to work.

The cat floated up toward the high ceiling of the chamber. And Chiyo followed. Everyone gasped except for Osaka. Chiyo's long pigtails flapped and floated in the breeze as she rose into the air laughing like a little girl.

"Knew it." Osaka said casually.

Several days later, having seen and learned things that most humans couldn't even imagine, they were getting ready to return to Earth.

Chiyo hugged her alien "father". "Thank you for everything. I hope we see you again soon."

"You will, Chiyo-Chan. I'll be watching over you."

"Hey, one thing I don't get." Tomo said. "Why did you threaten to destroy the Earth?"

"Destroy the Earth? I would never do that!"

"But you did say that." Chiyo said. "I translated it myself." She spoke in the strange, musical alien language. " 'If you don't come, the earth will be destroyed' ".

The alien laughed. "Chiyo, you mistranslated. What I said was 'If you don't bring some tomatoes I will be annoyed.'".

"Ohhhh, I see!" Chiyo laughed and everybody joined in. "I'm sorry, we don't have any."

"You don't?"

"No, I didn't-"

"They're my favorite earth fruit!" He began to change color and tremble. "I can't believe you didn't bring me any!"

Chiyo began to tremble and whimpered. "Um, I'm very sorry! We'll bring you some next time! I promise!"


End file.
